Recently I listened to the Wanderer leitmotif from Wagner's Ring cycle. I was both impressed and perplexed by the motif's harmony. The picture below tries to explain the possible modulations that this motif implies. It's quite pedantic, since I think most perfect cadences weren't necessary, but I wanted to establish the tonality and then modulate to a new key center.
The Wanderer motif: Wagner - Wanderer motif
and the short piece I wrote:
Explanation of symbols:
- +M is the Medianté (is it called chromatic mediant in English?), i.e. the III degree chord of a major scale with a major third (e.g., the +M of C major is E major),
- oTr is the chord that's relative (r) to T minor (o=minor and T=tonic). To explain it more accurately, the oTr chord of D (major or minor) is F major.
- oSr is the same as oTr, where S stands for subdominant. For example, the oSr chord of C (major or minor) is Ab major, i.e., the relative key of F minor (IV of C minor).
Lastly, as I haven't found the above symbols elsewhere except in my Harmony textbook: are there any equivalent symbols to describe these chords in the international music bibliography?